Media Bias Outrage of the Week - Did Voters Have a Message for the Mainstream Media?

Citizens Coalition for Responsible Media (CCRM) ^ | 11/11/2002 | Peacerose

[Peacerose]

Did Voters Have a Message
for the Mainstream Media?

11/11/2002
As a conservative voter, I was thrilled by the outcome of last week's elections. Living in the Pacific Time zone, it was incredible to watch the Republican onslaught roll westward. In the aftermath, political junkies have spent a lot of time examining the message voters sent to Washington.

As a media bias activist, I began to ponder if there was a message hidden within the vote for the mainstream media. It is well known that a majority of reporters and TV anchors are of the Democratic persuasion. The fact that they use their positions to push forward and, in effect, campaign for Democratic candidates and policies is the entire basis of complaints of liberal media bias. Surely the mainstream media could learn a thing or two from the voice of the people. Here, then, are some points I suggest media folk attend to:

We're getting smarter about media bias, and are not as easily manipulated. Media behavior during the 2000 election recount was so abominable that it turned normally quiet, untroublesome folk into activists. Since then, much has been published about the problem of media bias and we've been paying attention. We've become active in the discussion. We have learned to recognize the different forms of media bias and now we'd like to suggest that the media learn to recognize them too.

Clean up your act and start presenting all sides of an issue fairly. It really is okay to do that. People are smart enough to decide for themselves. (Oops! Do I sound like a populist?) Many on the left don't believe the right wing should be allowed to get their message out at all. Witness this decidedly elitist quote from New York Times columnist Paul Krugman:

"Talk radio and Fox News let the hard right get its message out to its supporters, while those who oppose the juggernaut stay home because they don't get the sense that the Democrats offer a real alternative." - Into the Wilderness, 11/08/2002

Let? LET??!! Hear this load and clear: If the mainstream media doesn't want to LET us know something, we have other ways of finding out and then spreading that knowledge around. The great unwashed are well able to change channels and now we are using computers with considerable skill. Your best, and really, your only choice is this: start presenting both (or all) sides of an issue equally - fair and square.

We appreciate honesty. We are sick of people who are tricky and treacherous. Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda are tricky and treacherous. We don't like them.

But even before we took much notice of terrorism, we had your dear President and Mrs. Clinton trying to get over on us: questioning the meaning of "is", pardons for votes, pardons for cash, carrying off furniture, making sure they got their "gifts" before Senate rules kicked in, ad nauseum. And there was Vice-president Gore and his ever-changing reality. For Al Gore, the truth was never something that could be pinned down. His quest to "find" votes during the 2000 Florida recount is another example of perceived trickiness.

Senators "Treacherous Tom" Daschle and "Tricky Ricky" Reid set a poisonous precedence when they flattered and bribed Judas Jeffords into turning "Independent", thus handing them control of the Senate. Do all Democrats follow the motto "Win at any cost"?

The last minute switcheroo of Senatorial candidates on the New Jersey ballot and the Minnesota memorial service turned romp 'em, stomp 'em political rally carried that same whiff of trickiness.

I'm convinced that the reason for President Bush's continuously high approval rating is that he tells the truth. He's not a con man. He's not a manipulator. We trust him. As Dennis Miller said on the Tonight Show:

"I think the thing I like most about him is that he's not Clinton." - 11/06/2002

For the mainstream media this renewed appreciation of honesty means that you have a long way to go to re-earn our trust. Our faith in what you tell us has been spiraling steadily downward for some time now. It is important to note that a half-truth is as good as a lie, so, once again, telling both sides of an issue is very important.

We want President Bush to lead and we want Congress to help him. President Bush asked voters for a Senate and House that would work with him. Most of us agreed that that was necessary. It is time for a new tone in Washington and Americans are not paying their legislators to sit up there at the nation's capitol and obstruct.

If the news media doesn't like that, too bad: You're not a branch of government. Of course, you are welcome to ignore all of this, but you do so at your own peril. Our patience has worn thin!

Read more here:

NY Times, Into the Wilderness, 11/08/2002

MRC CyberAlert, Dennis Miller: Bush "Makes Me Proud to be an American Again", 11/08/2002

[Peacerose]

Citizens Coalition for Responsible Media (CCRM) is the Free Republic Network media bias chapter. You are invited to visit our web site at www.fairpress.org.

[Peacerose]

Sorry I'm so late this week! I seem to be running behind myself to catch up!

[Libertina]

CCRM BUMP!

[Tacis]

The Krugman quote is wonderful and will be repeated down the years, not for what it says but for what it doesn't say. This ultra-left winger talks about Fox and talk radio letting out the message of normal Americans. Implicit in that position is the fact that traditional liberal media, the only game in town until recently, DIDN'T let this message out, censored it. Krugman confirms what most of us have known since before Georgie Jessel compared the NYT to Pravda, the old time media has had a pinko anti-normal American bias for years. Alas, as these papers go out of business, the resources will go to other business activities that will make greater profits. The workers, i.e., the presstitutes will be able to find work at Salon or other commie-pinko outfits or, more likely, turn their coats and work for the American team.

[moodyskeptic]

I'm impressed with your site.

[ctnoell]

The arrogant, liberal news media will not acknowledge this "message" sent by the tidal wave of Republican victories on November 5, 2002. This was evident the next day at the daily White House press briefing, where the livid press corps was seething with rage after the previous night's butt-kicking. Further evidence is Bill Moyer's commentary on PBS this past week. They will never get the message! But who care's? The American people possess a quality that most in the mainstream news media truly lack: COMMON SENSE!

[Peacerose]

The American people possess a quality that most in the mainstream news media truly lack: COMMON SENSE!

HA! So true! I truly enjoyed watching the befuddled "How could this happen?!" amazement as Republicans started winning the various races on election night. The media pundits are so impressed with their own 'intelligence', yet they don't know their ass from a hole in the ground.

[Peacerose]

Thank you! Thank you!

[RJCogburn]

bttt

[F.J. Mitchell]

The message to the media is that it's favoritism to Liberals and every other enemy of the United States, has made it a totally untrustworthy source of information for anyone. Everyone less liberal than the media whores, have found more reliable sources for information.

Message="Liberal media, good for laughs and nothing more-credibility zero."

[E.G.C.]

That's O.K., Peacerose thank you very much for bumping the articles to me.

[blam]

"Our patience has worn thin!"

Thin, thin you say? I gave up on'em years ago. I'm encouraged to see that their ratings are beginning to show my/our disgust! Keep up the good work CCRM!

[Peacerose]

That "zero credibility" was on front window display on election night! Maybe that's why I enjoyed it so much!

[Libertina]

I know I don't check in as often as I intend, but you all are doing a great job!

[backhoe]

Peacerose, I'll send links to this & Rat Chat to the usual suspects in my mass email list. They'll get seen.

Tacis mentioned:

This ultra-left winger talks about Fox and talk radio letting out the message of normal Americans. Implicit in that position is the fact that traditional liberal media, the only game in town until recently, DIDN'T let this message out, censored it.

Like usual, all the writers piling on Rush, talk(back) Radio, and the average Joe got it half-right, and missed the bigger picture entirely...

Rush is just part of an army of conservative & libertarian hosts out there- Boortz, Elder, Medved, Reagan, Hannity... and what they do is not just put out information the "media" doesn't want to mention, they educate and entertain.

But there's more they missed- the web is combining with talk radio so people with web access can get information, stories, refutations faster than they ever could before.

I first saw this happen in the spring with the "President's picture & How Awful That Was" trying to get traction, and failing, and the attempted morph to "What Did Bush Know?! And When Did He Know It?! failing the same way. As soon as those stories were propagated by a compliant and complict media, the radio show switchboards lit up with angry callers who has stories countering the spin... which had to come off the web; it was too fast to be in print.

[Peacerose]

Thank you, backhoe!

When ordinary Americans got the "bad guy" treatment from the media for being too patriotic, even people who aren't prone to see media bias realized the elitists were on another planet.

[F.J. Mitchell]

The media did contribute it's comic relief, to the ecstatic joys the election results were already bringing to all who love this country, didn't it?

Zero credibility, but at least a C+ for entertainment value.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

We put up with these liars trying to steal election 2000, spending 2 years calling our President illegitimate, treating Jeb's campaign as a re-play of election 2000 (DNC fantasy version)- complete with Reno, Gore, Hillary and Alcee Hastings lecturing US.

Floridians sent the Dems-press a message on Nov. 5th, all right. We not only know that President Bush won election 2000 fair and square, we know he won the popular vote nationwide. Every new dirty Rat trick confirms what our eye-witness election day accounts previously proved - the Rats cheat - Big Time.

So, what do we get following the GOP wins - the "will of the people" - Nov. 5th? The DNC press accomplices are busy puffing up AlGore, instead of burying him (Florida voters didn't just speak to Al, they shouted!), and about the massive Dem. fraud from 2000 and 2002? We're still waiting for the press. If anyone finds the 14 missing voting machines in Broward County, or news of the FEA-McBride illegal campaign ads - contact Gannett, courtesy of Donna Shalala.

[maxwellp]

"Common Sense" - yes, I think the American people do have it. This American, many years ago, stopped reading the NYT. I stopped watching TV news shows until FoxNews came along. On the internet I read NewsMax and FreeRepublic is my absolute favorite. That's it - so years ago I told the liberal media where to go and that was "out of my life".

[BraveMan]

Peacerose, thanks for the ping. I look forward to your threads . . .

Landru, there's an interesting slant on Dennis Miller in the link. I'm probably the only one on this board who actually enjoyed Miller on MNF. His analogies were like energetic little puppies, scrambling to climb out of the box. The Annotated Dennis Miller website allowed me to catch up . . .

Try a little experiment. Turn on the game tomorrow, hit mute, turn on the closed-captioning and read Madden . . .